West Virginia University M.B.A. controversy
The West Virginia University M.B.A. controversy concerns the granting of an Executive Master of Business Administration degree (EMBA) by West Virginia University to Mylan pharmaceutical company executive Heather Bresch in 2007. An independent panel later concluded that the university changed its records, and granted the degree despite incomplete graduation requirements. West Virginia University's president Michael Garrison, its provost Gerald Lang, and its business school dean R. Stephen Sears, resigned as a result of the investigation, and the university's general counsel and the president's communications officer relinquished those roles.
On October 2, 2007 Heather Bresch, the daughter of then-governor (and subsequently United States Senator) Joe Manchin of West Virginia, was promoted to chief operating officer at Mylan, a Cecil Township, Pennsylvania-based generic drug maker.
On October 11, 2007 the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette contacted West Virginia University to confirm academic credentials claimed by Bresch, including an EMBA degree. Research done by the Post-Gazette indicated that Bresch's course work ceased with 22 out of the 48-credit-hour program remaining to be completed. The WVU Registrar told the newspaper that Bresch had earned an undergraduate degree, but did not finish her graduate degree. However, on October 15, 2007, a university spokeswoman announced that WVU officials had verified that Bresch had "completed all the requirements for an executive masters of business administration degree," but did not receive her diploma because she failed to pay a $50 graduation fee. The WVU official attributed the misunderstanding to the business school's failure to transfer records from nearly half of Bresch's course work.
On October 22, 2007, R. Stephen Sears, the Milan Puskar Dean of WVU's business school, sent a letter to WVU's admissions and records office retroactively granting Bresch an EMBA. Six classes were added to her record with letter grades, and two classes with "Incomplete" grades were given letter grades.
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